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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

A Great School Day

I wrote this post a couple of weeks ago, but didn't get around to publishing it. I really wanted to share one of our great days, so here it is.

We had a great schoolday today. Not everyday is a great schoolday. Most days are good; occasionally, we'll have a not-so-good day, but today was a great day. Here's how it went:

Geography: I asked D-Man whether he wanted to start with math or spelling, but he really wanted to do geography. I caved. We got out the globe and reviewed what it was and where we live. He also identified North and South America. Then he and C-Monster spent another 15 minutes looking at the globe and asking me questions. They were particularly interested in the poles.

Once we were done with the globe, I introduced to D-Man to a map. Of course, he knows what a map is, but we compared it to a globe and talked about the advantages of a map. To finish it off, D-Man colored the map in his workbook.

Math: Once we finished geography, D-Man asked to do his new math book (Singpore PM 1A). First, I got out some addition flashcards and quizzed him on his 0, 1, and 2 math facts to 12. This was the first time we'd worked on math facts. Until now, I've just relied on all of the practice in Horizons K. D-Man did really well. He knew all of the problems and only had to think about the 2's above 6. Tomorrow, we'll review what we did today and also do the subtraction problems in that grouping. My goal is for him to have all of his addition and subtraction math facts to 10 memorized by the end of PM 1A. After D-Man was finished, C-Monster wanted a turn, so I helped him do the flashcards up to 1+5. Actually, he wouldn't let me help him, but he did let me remind him to use his fingers. Once flashcards were over, D-Man quickly did Review 2 in his workbook. It was mostly word problems which were really easy for him.

Spelling: Monday's are easy review days. We started with learning a few new spelling rules and reviewing the ones we learned last week. None of these rules were new to D-Man, but the cards and the exact wording were. He's still working on the exact wording of the rules, but the cards are perfect for him. He's a visual learner so having a picture cue for each rule is good for him. We, then, learned 4 new phonograms. When we learn new phonograms, D-Man looks at the phonogram, repeats the sounds after me and writes it on his whiteboard. We do this a couple of times. The next step is for me to quiz the phonograms by telling him the sounds for him to write on the whiteboard without seeing the card. The last step is for D-Man to read the phonograms from the cards. This gives him a good introduction to the new phonograms. Our last spelling task today was to review the words D-Man missed on his spelling test Friday. This was a good time for us to discuss his mistakes and talk about the correct spelling of the words. He misspelled 'bread' and 'hair,' but got 'floor' right the first time. Tomorrow, I'll quiz bread and hair again to see if he remembers what we talked about today.

Developing the Early Learner: The last thing we did was finish DEL 2. These books are intended to identify strenths and weaknesses in motor, visual, auditory, and comprehension skills. They are one of his favorite school activities. Today, we did the last 3 pages of the book. He finished them well. Of course, we had to look at the next workbook in the series and he "had" to work on one of the mazes in the middle of the book. The activities are designed to be worked in order, but he did the maze correctly anyway.

Sonlight Read-Alouds: After some recess and rest time, we dove into our Sonlight read-alouds. Today we got to read an Uncle Wiggily story, a poem from Animals, Animals, and a few pages from our science book, What's Under the Sea? SL RA's are the icing of our schoolday. D-Man and C-Monster look forward to cuddling on the couch to read with me. I don't mind it myself. D-Man is always full of questions about our readings. Today, he wanted to know a lot more about oil rigs. I answered the questions that I knew and told him that we'd look up his other ones later. Although our science books are pretty simple, they create lots of bunny trails for us to explore.

More than what we did, I enjoyed our attitudes. Everyone was excited about learning and having fun doing it.

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About Me

I'm a child of the Lord just trying to figure out how best to raise these four little boys He's given me and loving almost every minute of it. It's amazing how much He reveals to me through this journey...and I'm supposed to be the one teaching.